The freshman experience is often overlooked and exaggerated to be one of those times in your life that you can look back on and reflect on. Halfway through the first year of college, I can honestly say that this experience is one that I can tell my kids about. It is something that gave me good and bad memories but for the most part positive experiences that I can choose to focus on. I found myself struggling at times as any student would, but the good outweighed the bad, so it wasn't as stressful as I had expected. The first week of college, I had very low expectations. I thought I could breeze by in my classes just like high school but I was very much humbled.
The structure of the classes didn't surprise me. I knew going in, because of my brother and sister who went to the University of Maryland before me, that generally, my grades were dependent on midterms and finals. Everything else was busy work and was completion-based. This allowed me to focus my energy on what impacted my grade the most. I was surprised by how tiring a day can be even with just 2-3 classes each being about an hour or so. The overall size of the classes surprised me. The bigger classes blended with lectures and discussions were a lot more demanding when it came to being independent. It was important for me to find help on my own and create smaller study groups to focus and stay on top of my work.
The delivery of the classes was new to me compared to my experiences in high school. At times it felt like I was in online classes from all of the lecture recordings I ended up watching. The larger the class, the harder it was for me to focus and put my phone away. As the semester went on I found myself relying more and more on the recorded lectures instead of focussing on the classes. I knew transitioning from high school to college, there would be larger classes where there was less supervision and a lot more freedom, but I didn't expect to be entirely on my own.
The graded items lined up for the more part. I was surprised that some of my classes didn't even bother with graded homework assignments. Most of the assignments were larger assignments, projects, and then of course the quizzes, exams, and midterms. While some professors still gave homework and suggested problems from the textbook, almost none of them collected anything. This gave me no motivation to do the homework until right before the quiz or midterm because otherwise, it didn't affect me. As the semester progressed I put more effort into doing the suggested homework but it wasn't as important to me until the midterms got closer and closer. Another big part of the graded items were presentations and research papers. In high school, presentations and research papers were just a formality, and as long as you presented all of the points you had to, you were almost guaranteed to get an A. In college, there was a lot more work required when it came to preparing for a presentation, and the countless hours of research required.
The colloquium was another experience that was neither good nor bad. It just didn't stand out to me enough for me to care one way or another. At times I enjoyed it and other times I couldn't be bothered to pay attention, not because I didn't like the class but because other things had my attention for the time being. One of the items that we covered in class that caught my attention was the idea of fallacies. Before this class, I had never heard of this concept before but as it was explained more and more in the lectures I began to understand the power of this and how prevalent it is everywhere I look. I completely expected this class to cover climate change and all of the effects associated with climate change however I was expecting to learn more about what we can do and how the future generations can help solve this problem. The outside activities were enjoyable. My favorite part was weeding the ponds at Kenilworth Gardens. Before this event, I was dreading the idea of it but once you get in the water with your friends it was really fun and I didn't mind getting dirty. Plus the wheelbarrows were really fun to use.
One thing I talked about a lot with my friend towards the end of high school was the freshman experience of living in a dorm. I was so excited about living with my best friend and while there were some bad situations that we faced living in a dorm, I wouldn't change it because it was all part of the experience and at the end of the day, we faced it together. You just have to accept the bad that comes with the good. Even though my roommate wasn't in scholars we fit in fine and were still able to experience all of the events together.
For future SGC students, trust the process. It won't be easy at the start, but if you can find even one or two people that you can relate with, you will be so much better off. Find a group, not too many people, and stick with them, rely on them. Everyone is in the same boat and everyone is here for the same reasons. Just make sure whoever you choose to be with that they have the same interests and values as you. Hopefully, you can have a good freshman experience that you can tell your kids about one day,